News & Stories: Policy Monitor

Province-wide online resource and child care registry allows parents to find out about, and register for child care options, including licensed child care centres, home child care and nursery schools. Manitobaparentzone.ca also provides parenting and child development information. Manitobaparentzone.ca will run on a $70,000 annual budget, with initial site development and marketing costs of $200,000. The online registry is being launched at a cost of $1.575 million and will operate on an annual investment of $150,000.

Excerpt: "The province will fund an extra 25 child-care sites, raising its five-year commitment under Family Choices to 54 new centres, Premier Greg Selinger announced today."

Excerpt: "An Early Childhood Education Unit within Manitoba Education will invest $300,000 in early-childhood development to support families and communities as they prepare young children for success and investing $300,000 to increase the connection between early-childhood education and the formal kindergarten to Grade 12 education system. The province will also invest $300,000 in early-childhood development to support families and communities as they prepare young children for success when they start school. The new unit will monitor and disseminate research respecting early childhood development, connect research to practice in terms of using Early Development Instrument (EDI) data."

Excerpt: "Building Manitoba’s skilled and dynamic workforce, preserving and building on services for families such as health care, education and training, and enhancing public safety highlighted this year’s speech from the throne today during the launch of the fifth session of the 39th legislative assembly."

Excerpt: "The initiatives include an increase in funding availability and supports for the sector offered through the Child Care Capacity Initiative program, including: $7.5 million in funding to support infrastructure and renovations to regulated child care services availing of the operating grant program, to increase child care capacity by 750 spaces, with priority for the creation of toddler spaces in not-for-profit child care services; the hiring of a Project Manager within the Provincial Government to oversee and support not-for-profit child care capacity projects; and an increase to the personnel budget category of projects operating under the Child Care Capacity Initiative program, which includes an hourly wage increase from $17 per hour to $25 per hour for developmental workers."

Saskatchewan government released their 2013-1014 Provincial Budget, and continue to make students a priority by investing in the PreK-12 education system.

Excerpt: "“We want to make sure students are receiving the best possible education in Saskatchewan schools,” Education Minister Russ Marchuk said. “That is especially challenging now, with school enrolments increasing for the first time in many years. This budget meets that challenge.”"

The Child Care Amendment Regulations.

Excerpt: "Investment in to the education of our children begins even before they reach kindergarten. This budget provides $20.4 million–an increase of more than 6 percent over last year–to support 15 new pre-K programs. This will bring the total number of pre-K programs across Saskatchewan to 316. The number of childcare spaces in Saskatchewan is also expanding. The 2014-15 Budget provides $52.7 million, an increase of 4.3 percent compared to last year, to expand the number of childcare spaces by 500."

The government announced additional professional development funding for staff and board members of child care centres. "Grants are provided to reimburse costs associated with attending professional development events such as workshops or conferences held in the province."

Excerpt: "The allocation is based on the 2012-13 provincial budget which provided $2 million to develop 500 new child care spaces across Saskatchewan, and an additional $4 million to cover the capital costs of those new spaces."

Excerpt: ""The Government of Saskatchewan continues to make significant progress in increasing the number of licensed child care spaces in Saskatchewan," Duncan said. "The 25 new spaces at Pangman School are part of that investment. More children will now have access to high quality early learning opportunities while their parents are following their own education or employment pursuits.""